HomeMy Public PortalAbout20060323_TybeeCouncilMinsCouncil Minutes
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Meeting of 2006-03-23 City Council Minutes
Mayor Jason Buelterman called the regular council meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Council members
present were, Shirley Sessions, Eddie Crone, Mallory Pearce, Kathryn Williams, Wanda Doyle and Paul
Wolff.
Assistant City Manager Dee Anderson and City Attorney Edward Hughes were also present.
The invocation was given by Father Costigan and everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
Sandy Major of the Tybee Neighbors Association said she wanted to thank Council for acquiring the
campground and making a cohesive effort to make that happen. She said her favorite saying is, some
people make things happen, some people watch things happen and some people have no idea what
happened. She said she is proud to recognize a Mayor and Council that can make things happen. She said
she has received many e-mails from people that are very happy about the campground acquisition. She
said the association members are hoping the citizens of Tybee will show support for the campground
purchase.
Ms. Major said the association is hoping the city will sponsor a survey to get public opinions on critical
issues. She said it takes a lot of time and resources to do this type of survey in preparation for updating
the master plan. She invited everyone to join the Tybee neighbors for the next meeting to discuss the
Tybee road and ecotourism. She said they are a diverse group but they share a common goal of valuing
and protecting Tybee residents.
***
Bill Cannon of the Tybee Beautification Association said they are planning a beach sweep on Saturday
April 8th. He said all volunteers will meet at the Pavilion at 9:30 AM for registration, with a starting time
of 10:00 AM. He said they will have a Hot Dog lunch at 12:00 noon. Mr. Cannon thanked the Mayor and
Council for their support of the committee’ s activities.
Mr. Crone thanked Mr. Cannon and his Wife for picking up the trash on Hwy 80 last Sunday in the cold.
***
Betty Ann Brooks with the Tybee Tour of Homes announced that the tour this year will be on May 20,
2006 starting at 9:30 AM until 4:00 PM with approximately 1000 visitors. She asked that Council allow
them parking passes and to put up banners advertising the event and let them use the tables and chairs.
Ms. Brooks said the proceeds will go to the Hope House, a non profit that provides support and training
for single mothers with one child so that they can become independent contributors to the community.
She said the Founder of Hope House is Tybee’ s own Margaret Dulohery
***
Elizabeth Johnson, President of the Marine Science Center told Council that the center is working towards
building a new building and relocating to North Beach. She said they hope to complete the move in 2010.
She said they have been busy while waiting for the land agreement to be completed, working on a
strategic plan and a business plan. She said they have visited other centers around the area and in other
states to get a better idea of how to use their space. She said they have also continued to educate the
public. Ms. Johnson told everyone that with the beginning of the turtle nesting season that runs from
May1st thru August 31st, they will have the Tybee Turtle Trot on April 29th at 8:00 AM. The cost is
$20.00 for members and $25.00 for non-members. She said the deadline for registration is April 22, 2006
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with a $5.00 discount for early registrations. She said you can download a registration form on
tybeemsc.org. She reminded everyone to turn their lights off at the beginning of nesting season. She said
they will have another event sponsored by Sea Kayak of Ga. On May 13th which is Mother’ s Day
weekend with three skill level kayak races and will start at A.J.s restaurant. She said the cost will be $500
for sponsoring a team and challenged the Council and city employees to take up a collection and sponsor
a team. She thanked the City for their unwavering support of the center.
***
Mr. Marlowe and Mr. Ordal of Marlowe and Company addressed Council regarding the beach
renourishment. Mr. Ordal said it is a very difficult and complex process to get federal funds. He said they
expected the House Appropriations Committee to have a bill sometime in May and they will see if they
have any money towards this project. He said the Senate would have their version hopefully sometime
before July 4th. He said there would still have to be a final bill hopefully sometime around October. Mr.
Ordal said they not only work with the Georgia Delegation but with delegations across the country to
make sure they know this project is important. He said they had gone out on the beach today and they
could see just how much help is needed. He encouraged the people of Tybee to go to the city website at
the beach renourishment icon and e-mail their members of Congress and also to encourage visitors to e-
mail their members of congress also. He said in the last few days there have been over 55 messages sent
to congress in support of Tybee’ s beach renourishment project.
Mr. Marlowe thanked the Mayor for leading the delegation to Washington. He said the system works in
response to those people that give their input and their constituents answer to them. He said Council
needs to be specific about what they want for Tybee. He asked if the beach would have the dunes
necessary to protect it from storms. He told about studies that are being done that show beaches in Florida
with new dunes were protected from a lot of damage during the last few years when they had several
storms in a season.
Ms. Rutherford said these projects are characterized as earmarks and she doesn’ t think that is accurate.
Mr. Marlowe’ s response was the Corps of Engineer’ s budget is earmarked by congress. He said that is
not a dirty word because their entire budget is earmarked with everything being transparent. He said after
the city has filed its request in writing the appropriations committee goes to the corps for a facts sheet. He
said if congress didn’ t give them specific jobs they would have nothing to do. He said this is an honest
worthwhile project and Tybee has received these funds before and Tybee needs them now and everyone
needs to be in support of that.
Mayor Buelterman said that none of our Congressmen are backing away from this at all. Mr. Marlowe
said that is correct and whatever they are saying about earmarks does not apply to this project. He said
Tybee has a strong delegation that is asking congress to live up to the bargain they made when they first
renourished the beach years ago.
***
Mr. Dick Smith addressed Council concerning the article about purchasing the campground
that was in the paper on Tuesday. He said it stated that the purchase had to be done so quickly that there
was no time for public input. He said there was a statement in the article that said there would be a public
hearing. He asked when the public hearing would be. Mayor Buelterman responded that there would be a
public hearing in April. Mr. Hughes added that the public hearing would be scheduled as soon as the
financing is in place. Mr. Smith asked if the public hearing would be before the closing on the property
purchase. Mr. Hughes told Mr. Smith that the public hearing has to be held before the intergovernmental
agreement, which may be a lease. Mr. Smith asked if public input would be allowed before the signing of
the purchase or lease. Mr. Hughes explained that the hearing would be on the agreement as opposed to the
closing on the campground but it is all part of the same transaction. Mr. Smith asked if that meant the
decision to purchase the campground had already been made and there would be no public input into that
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decision making process. Mayor Buelterman told Mr. Smith that without the intergovernmental
agreement there can be no purchase. Mr. Hughes explained that the contract is contingent on a particular
kind of financing, which requires the public hearing, so if the financing doesn’ t go the purchase doesn’ t
go. Mr. Smith said that his concern was the lack of public input, sought or given. Mayor Buelterman told
Mr. Smith that by law with this bond they have to have a public hearing and they will.
***
Mr. Charlie Fenwick, Superintendent at Ft. Pulaski told Council that he and Mr. Clyde Johnson,
Developer of the Austin Track, had been discussing the 144th anniversary of the Siege and Reduction of
Ft. Pulaski, that took place on April 10 and 11th in 1862. He said since the park was established in 1933
there has never been an opportunity to tell other than the confederate side of the story. He said there was a
northern side to the story that took place on Big Tybee Island, as is was called back then. Mr. Fenwick
said there were eleven federal batteries, with only one remaining the same today and that is the one at
Battery Halleck. He said if they can find a suitable partner they would like to commemorate the actual
battle over at Ft. Pulaski and have a parallel commemoration here on Tybee. He said they were looking
for something close to the actual place. Mr. Fenwick said when he approached Mr. Johnson; he was very
excited about the idea. Mr. Fenwick said that he and Mr. Johnson would like to join the City of Tybee in
what could be an annual event. He said that Ft. Pulaski has two reproduction cannons and they could have
an actual firing on Tybee Island with an answering fire from Ft. Pulaski, but they would not be
concurrent. Mr. Fenwick told Council that he is new to Ft. Pulaski and has a lot of ideas and he is looking
forward to working with the City of Tybee on the commemoration of their history.
Mr. Clyde Johnson said that when his group first acquired the property, they looked at all the battery
positions on the property and then he had a meeting with Paul Wolff and they put the history together. He
told Council that the road into the development is a public road and the circle in the back is public
property all the way down to the water and it looks right over at Ft. Pulaski. Mr. Johnson said he called
Mr. Fenwick to come over and take a look and they started putting a plan together. Mr. Johnson said they
intended to have a camp and set up tents just as the soldiers did when they were there. He said they would
provide forty or fifty parking spaces for people coming in to watch the festivities.
Ms. Sessions asked them what they were requesting from the city. Mr. Fenwick said they wanted the city’
s blessing and in the future the city would be the host of the event after the development is in place so he
was thinking they should come forward now. He said if the event turns out to be popular then they would
need some help from the city in regards to port-a-potties being set up and available and also a law
enforcement officer to help with traffic control if needed. Ms. Sessions asked Mr. Fenwick to get in touch
with Mr. Anderson about any needs they might have from the city. Mr. Anderson said that he had already
put Mr. Fenwick in touch with Mr. Nobles at the gym.
Ms. Doyle said that as a former educator of history she would love to be a part of this.
Mr. Wolff thanked Mr. Fenwick and said that this could be the start of something good in regards to
developing a Heritage Tourism Venue on Tybee. Mr. Wolff said that the county is trying to acquire
Battery Halleck, which is right across the road and the property that the developers gave to the city could
tie in nicely with that and we could put up a few signs telling the story and encouraging people to come
on the island and spend their money.
Mr. Fenwick said that they would appreciate any extra publicity the city could help with if they come to
an agreement.
***
Mr. Russell Bridges told Council that he was there to discuss allowing private parking areas for special
events. He said he had requested this from council last year. He said like so many other property owners
on Tybee, his property tends to get a lot of uninvited guests. He said he is requesting to be able to charge
a fee and it would be primarily focused on special occasions like weekends and holidays. He said they do
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not want to compete with city parking but at times when the beach is overrun with visitors we are looking
for a mechanism to alert city officials to the situation so that we could then be allowed to charge for
parking. Mr. Bridges said they want to purchase a permit and comply with the law.
Mr.Buelterman said Council would take the comments given into consideration when this comes up later
on the agenda.
***
Mr. Mark Williams gave his department report to Council. He said the water and sewer department was
reading meters for the April billing and doing final inspections to the work that has been completed by
Garney on the Butler Ave. water line project. He said they are working with Southeast Pipe Survey to
eliminate problem areas in the sewer collection system. They are working with Atlantic, Atlantic to repair
defective components in the pumping system at the main well as well as repairing several water line and
sewer system leaks. They also located several underground water and sewer lines as requested by the
underground protection center.
Mr. Williams said the department of public works had spent 90 man hours on beach trash and litter
pickup and 20 hours on street trash and litter pick up. He said grounds and building maintenance had cut
and cleaned 46 acres with mowers and weed eaters and had cut and cleaned Hwy 80 and also the city
right of ways, catch basins and storm drains and cleaned over 2,417 ft of ditches as well as spreading
mulch in the new Dog Park and helping with the tree planting at the Gym. He said they have replaced the
lights and timer at the Memorial Park Pavilion and replaced 21 sections of picket fence and replaced
pickets as needed. He said work had begun on the Dune Crossover at Gulick Street and the maintenance
crew had begun clearing all sand from the crossovers per a permit with the DNR as well as repairing and
replacing boards on the crossover in front of the pier and beach swings as needed. He said they had
installed 800 ft of snow fencing in the dune area between 17th and 14th street and center to 6th street. They
have completed the storm drain project on Second Avenue. They have started the storm drain project on
Solomon Avenue.
Mayor Buelterman asked Mr. Williams to tell approximately what the city had saved by having city
employees doing the drain project work. Mr. Williams said they have completed six out of seven projects
this year and they completed six projects last year and he estimates the savings to be in the hundreds of
thousands of dollars and he added that the drainage crew is doing a phenomenal job. He said they had
replaced a catch basin behind the Tybee market as well as forming and pouring concrete for sidewalk
sections at several locations. They brought in 5 loads of dirt and gravel and graded Solomon Avenue
along with grading Hosti Avenue to East Gate.
Ms. Doyle asked Mr. Williams what the status was on the Sewer Lines from Breezy Point to the bridge.
Mr. Williams responded that the Engineers that were hired by the developers of that property have
discovered that a lift station will not be necessary in that area, that will cut the price significantly so we
are waiting for their engineers to give us the cost of running that line across the highway from McKensie
Street and we are also looking at a new water line in that area for fire protection. Ms. Doyle asked Mr.
Williams if the amount in our budget would be enough to cover those cost. Mr. Williams said it would
not, but that this is not a project that is solely being done by the city; this is a cost share project in which
the developers share the cost with the city.
Ms. Williams said in comparing the new snow fencing installation to the old snow fencing she has
noticed a lot more people in the dunes particularly around the pier and she asked Mr. Williams if he could
put more signs up to prevent this. Mr. Williams said they had already ordered the signs with warnings on
them and the open sections of the crosswalk that goes over the dunes will have snow fencing put up as a
barrier to deter people from going into the dune area.
Mr. Crone asked Mr. Williams who had called him to spread the mulch in the dog park. Mr. Williams
said he was not called but Mr. Carpenter at DPW was called. Mr. Williams said the city had talked about
using left over mulch to go into the dog park. Mr. Crone asked if the City Manager was made aware of
the city putting the mulch in the dog park. Mr. Williams said he was not. Mr. Crone said the city was not
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supposed to get involved with the process of the dog park and he asked that Mr. Williams go through the
city manager from now on.
***
Ms. Frankie Conaway from Parking Services gave Council her report saying her department had sent out
3,124 pieces of mail, repaired 32 meters, issued 353 decals, written 559 citations, pursued 991 tags,
collected $22,937 in fines, collected $3,525 on decals, lot revenue was $5,799 for a total of $32,311. She
said they also collected 20 bags of coins and she and her office manager had attended NCIC training with
the Police Department. She said they will be looking at fine tuning the streets now that the water line
project is over to make sure everything is in order for parking.
Ms. Sessions said Ms. Conaway’ s department does a great job and she requested that Ms. Conaway let
Mr. Anderson know if they need any help from Council for classes that would help them deal with the
situations that they face at parking services. Ms. Conaway said her staff had taken those classes in the past
but it is probably time for a review or an update.
***
Chief Price told Council that the department had done a traffic count comparison for St. Patrick’ s Day
weekend and over the three-day period the count for 2004 was 20,001 vehicles on the Island and 2005
they had 13,800 vehicles and for 2006 they had 32,006. He said they had great weather and a great parade
and everything went fine. He said they were kept pretty busy and he did have to use comp time and
overtime to bring out extra patrols in the 16th Street area. He said they had a stolen vehicle that had six
people in it but that was confiscated and there were no major problems.
Ms. Doyle commented that she would like to see more police officers on the parade route along Tybrisa
for safety reasons. She said they might have to use rope around the meters to keep people out of the street.
She said she noticed a problem with people putting their chairs right out in the street. She asked that the
City Manager work with the Chief and Parking Services to address the problem for next year. Chief Price
said they could clear the whole street line if that is what Council wants however he said he did not have
the personnel to put down on 16th Street because his officers are blocking off every other intersection
along the parade route. He said it would take extra money to bring in part-time people but it can be done.
Chief Price told Council regarding the Bike Patrol that they haven’ t used it in the last six or seven years
and he did not put it in his budget for this year. He said if Council wants the bike patrol utilized that it can
be done but he would need extra money in his budget. Ms. Williams asked if the department still had the
bicycles. Chief Price said yes and they could have them repaired and brought up to par.
Ms. Doyle told Chief Price that the business district is interested in having the bike patrols activated so
that is why Council needed the input.
Chief Price said the bike patrol was started about 10 years ago because of having a lot of trouble on 16th
Street and it was done as a community project to help them get their hands on the problem. He told
Council if they want to activate the bike patrol it can be done.
Mr. Anderson asked the Chief how long it would take to get the figures together. Chief Price said he
would have them by Monday.
Ms. Williams asked if it was possible to have existing patrolmen put on bike patrol. Chief Price said it is
not possible to have a patrolman try to answer a call and have to figure what to do with his bike before
getting into his vehicle to respond in an emergency situation.
***
Mr. Jason Nobles reported to Council that his parks maintenance staff and himself had attended a tree
workshop at the Bamboo Farm. He said that he and Mr. Williams had made contact with a person from
the Savannah Tree Foundation that would be willing to come to Tybee and teach staff members about
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caring for trees old and new. He said they have someone from the Ga. Forestry Commission coming
down next week to show them how to care for the new trees at the Gym. He has scheduled the tennis
court resurface for March 29th. They received additional mulch for the playground at JC Park to raise it to
the proper level. He said they have processed all beach use applications as well as special event
applications as well as accommodating all civic groups that utilize city space for meetings at the school
and cafeteria. He said they had begun improvements to the softball field and concession stand at JC Park
as well as preparing for increased facility use during the summer. He said his staff was responsible for
setting everything up for the DCA team meetings. Mr. Nobles said he is finalizing choices for picnic
tables and the benches for the tennis court and the park of seven flags have already been ordered. He said
he was able to give input to the DCA team regarding issues with the parks. He said he has been accepted
into the Georgia Parks and Recreation Leadership I course that will be held at Rock Eagle 4-H camp. He
said his department has partially taken over the maintenance of Memorial and JC Park and also removed
all items from the Guard House in preparation for the renovation. He thanked Don Ernst for letting them
utilize Tybeetime.com to post the calendar for events and meetings.
Ms. Sessions asked if there was a link to the City’ s web site from tybeetime.com. She said her concern
was that the calendar is not on our city website. Mr. Nobles told Council that Mr. Smith is working on the
city website to include those items. Mr. Smith told Council the new website will be up before summer.
Ms. Williams said there is a link on the City’ s website but it needs clarification because it is listed as
happenings and it doesn’ t say calendar of events. Maybe it could be renamed until we get the new site up
and running.
Mr. Nobles told council regarding the beach use permit fee that he simply wanted to be able to charge a
processing fee to offset the cost of staff time utilized in processing these applications also operations of
the department and maintain order to avoid conflict during use of the municipal beach. He said they have
come up with a $35.00 fee to process any event application that utilizes the municipal beach. He arrived
at that fee by estimating the number of man-hours used to process an application until it is approved. He
said they currently have a $100 fee for major special events. He said that the free applications for beach
use not only effects his department with the staff time involved but also could effect DPW with beach
cleanup if the group did not clean up properly. He said his department had already processed 29 permits
of that type so far this year.
Mr. Wolff asked Mr. Nobles how he was going to clarify the events. He asked if a family dragging out
two tents with some coolers for a family reunion on the beach would be considered an event like people
having a wedding. Mr. Nobles said he did not know how to clarify the events.
Ms Sessions said at the last meeting she suggested Mr. Nobles check the surrounding beach websites to
see how this would be handled elsewhere like on the Hilton Head website they are very specific about
their event permits taking into consideration numbers and size.
Mr. Nobles said Hilton Head currently has a processing fee like we have for special events but he could
find no other areas that charged fees for beach use. Ms. Sessions said she feels that this should be looked
at closely and maybe they could utilize the number of chairs involved to decide if fees should be involved
but she doesn’ t think a family get together at the beach should have a fee assessed.
Ms. Williams said a fellow teacher was planning to bring her class down to play at the playground and
when the teacher called she was told they would have to pay a fee to use the playground. Ms. Williams
said she wants to make sure we are consistent and charging some and not others.
Mr. Nobles said if someone wants to reserve Memorial Park, they have to do it through the gym office
however if they just want to come down and play and not have exclusive use then they don’ t have to go
through the gym office but if it is reserved then the group without reservations could not use it.
Mr. Wolff said that maybe a link could be put on our website to put people in contact with commercial
entities that could give them the information and save on staff time. He said event coordinators should be
doing most of the work that the staff is now doing.
Mr. Nobles reported to Council regarding the Grant for Memorial Park. He said the city has until July of
2006 to enter into the agreement with the LWCF after which we would have one year to complete the
project. He said regarding the specific equipment such as the spray pool, we are not obligated to put in the
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spray pool but the equipment would need to be decided on during the planning process, however he said
we cannot change the scope of the project once we receive the funds therefore we cannot utilize the funds
for the skate park. He said the funds can only be used for equipment and if there are funds left over after
the bid process then the city could use the leftover funds for other things in the park He said in the grant
application we showed a 64% match which helped us score higher but the DNR will hold us to a 50%
match and as long as we have made a good faith effort, we would not be penalized.
Mayor Buelterman said that Council will discuss this issue at the upcoming retreat and he thanked Mr.
Nobles for getting them all the requested information.
***
Mr. Jimmy Brown gave Council his report concerning Emergency Management. He requested that
Council adopt the Hurricane Emergency Operations Plan. He drew council’ s attention to the map
concerning the flood levels of the storm surge that comes with Hurricanes. He showed an example of
where the floodwaters would come to on the City Hall building noting that a category 4 Hurricane would
completely submerge City Hall.
Mayor Buelterman requested that Mr. Brown have those flood levels marked on a telephone pole or
something in front of City Hall like they have in Key West to educate people who would not ordinarily
leave in an emergency situation.
Mr. Brown said the Tybee Emergency Operations Plan has the approval of the Emergency Operations
Committee, Department Heads and the Chatham Emergency Management Agency. He said each
department and staff position in the city has been assigned specific duties and emergency support
functions in the event of a natural or manmade disaster. He said each department has written standard
operating procedures explaining how each task and support function will be carried out. He said Chatham
County Emergency Management has endorsed this plan and will use it as a template for other
municipalities to use.
Mr. Wolff said this plan was good and over the last few months all of the department heads were asked to
write down specifics on what needed to be done and who would do it and how they would do it
concerning each detail of an evacuation and recovery.
Mr. Brown said he is hoping to have the Department heads make a presentation to the Emergency
Operations Committee before June but he was waiting for the plan to be adopted so that they could
accommodate any changes. Mr. Wolff recommended that the department heads be as specific as possible
Ms. Sessions asked about the State Emergency Management Conference schedule. Mr. Brown said it
would be in Savannah at the Westin on May 2nd thru the 5th.He said the Chatham County Conference
would be at the Marriott and will have a class for elected officials. He said he would send e-mails and get
brochures for council concerning the conferences. Mr. Brown requested that a plan for rebuilding the city
in the event of a disaster be added to the Master Plan. Mr. Crone said if a category 5 came through there
wouldn’ t be anything left to re-build. Mr. Brown said they would need a plan to implement in case a
category 2 storm came. Mayor Buelterman said some of the towns on the gulf coast have trailers as their
city halls.
***
Ms. Jan Fox requested a budget adjustment to move money out of a capitol outlay account. She said that
she and Mr. Anderson had decided not to purchase the customer service module and wanted to utilize the
money to train staff members on existing software. She said the balance would go into the contingency
account.
Ms. Sessions asked what amount was in the contingency fund now. Ms. Fox said the general fund has a
$59,000 contingency right now. She said the Water Sewer contingency had been depleted by the Butler
Ave. Water line project. Mayor Buelterman asked how much the reserve fund was. Ms. Fox said it was
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$2,800,000 and that is for 4 months of operation. Mayor Buelterman said that was excellent because the
city didn’ t have it before.
Ms. Fox then requested a rate change for Water asking for a .23-cent increase. Ms. Fox told Council that
the 23-cent increase would provide $77,000 for debt service and put a little back into contingency for the
water fund because of the overrun on the Butler Ave. Water Line, she has also requested that GEFA
increase the loan limit by $396,000. She said the debt service on that would be $26,000 a year and the
other $50,000 would be put into a contingency fund for the water so that if a pump goes down we can
bring it back up. She said that would raise the water up to $1.65 instead of the current $1.42 and it would
raise the sprinkler rates as well. She said to go to a tiered rate system would raise the lowest bill meaning
10,000 gallons or less by $1.52 and 10,001 to 20,000 gallons would be $1.77 and over 20,000 gallons
would be $2.02 and she would have to tweak the system to be based on the number of units because we
have so many multi unit customers. She said she could not get the tiered rate system ready for the billing
next week but she would be able to implement the straight rate increase for this billing. She said if the rate
increase is passed it would cover the debt service this year. She showed a price comparison on water rates
for surrounding areas, showing Tybee as having the lowest water rates and even with the increase they
would remain the lowest.
Ms. Sessions asked Ms. Fox if the additional money would go to pay for water projects. Ms. Fox said the
water project we are finishing now went over by $634,000 and the final bills weren’ t in yet. She said she
has asked for $396,000 from GEFA to pay the pro-rated share that we have to pay out of our water fund
and then there was an amount that she paid out of SPLOST so she needs to cover that. Ms. Fox said her
request is to raise the rates enough to cover the loan payments on that amount.
Ms. Sessions asked if water projects could be paid out of other funds. Ms. Fox said the money would
have to be borrowed from the General Fund.
Ms. Fox requested a rate increase for Garbage charges to offset the increase in gasoline cost that we have
to pay in the form of a fuel surcharge on our bill. She told Council our garbage charges are very low
compared to surrounding areas. She requested an increase of $1.46, which would equal $50,000 and
would just reduce the subsidy to the solid waste fund from $250,000 to $200,000 this year. She said the
city is subsidizing $4.39 per month per customer.
Ms. Sessions asked if there were additional services that could be considered in with increasing the
garbage bill. Ms. Fox answered that she would be willing to go to Waste Management and try to work on
getting some other options.
Ms. Williams said maybe they could reduce the garbage pickups during the off season because she has
seen a decrease in her garbage amount due to the implementation of the recycling program.
Mr. Wolff said there were two options on our agreement with Waste Management, with one having once
a week garbage pickup from November through February and that option would have reduced the rate by
about $1.65. He said that option could cut it back enough to absorb the increase.
Mayor Buelterman asked Ms. Fox to discuss the Bank Merchants Agreement. Mr. Hughes first explained
that these were the contracts the he and Ms. Fox had gotten from the Bank regarding the credit card
machine. He said the bank had eventually agreed to an addendum that he believed was necessary to
conform to state law. Ms. Fox said she had sent this out for best price quotes because it was under
$10,000. Mayor Buelterman asked if the company that the city was presently doing business with was
contacted. Ms. Fox said she had contacted them but had received no response. Mr. Hedgcorth said that he
had never received anything. Ms. Fox said that she had mailed the request to the address on the bill. Mr.
Hedgcorth said it went to Memphis, Tennessee instead of coming to him. He said he is the representative
for that company. Ms. Fox said she had received Mr. Hedgcorth’ s numbers this morning but she had
been working on this for over two months. She said she was reviewing the contracts and had found out
that the Police Department was moving their machine on court days. She decided to price a new machine
for them and get price quotes on the fees as well because the volume had gone up tremendously. Mr.
Hedgcorth said he was contacted about the new machine but no one mentioned rates to him. Ms. Doyle
asked when this would be resolved. Mr. Hughes said it was on the agenda tonight for the contract to be
signed. Ms. Fox said the City owns the machines and they were under a month-to-month service
Council Minutes
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agreement. Mr. Wolff asked if there would be a problem with considering another quote. Ms. Fox said the
quote she received that morning would save the City approximately $90 a year.
***
Mayor Buelterman opened the business meeting asking for a motion concerning the consent agenda items
which consisted of, DOT Letter, Appointing Vivian Woods as Deputy Clerk, Minutes from March 2nd and
9th Council Meetings, Approval for Buelterman to attend the Hurricane Conference on April 10th thru 14th.
Mr. Wolff motioned to approve the consent agenda, Ms. Williams seconded, and the vote was unanimous.
***
Mayor Buelterman asked if they could postpone making a decision on the credit card machine issue. Mr.
Hughes said it wouldn’ t be a problem to wait but it was wrong to request quotes and then have someone
come in after that and undercut the quotes that were received. Mr. Hughes said he understood that Mr.
Hedgcorth had not received the request and his company probably assumed he was taking care of the
quote but this would have already been finalized if Mr. Hughes hadn’ t insisted the bank make the
changes he requested on the contract.
Mr. Wolff motioned to purchase the other credit card machine as planned and then bring this back next
month to review the rates
Mr. Hedgcorth said the machines that the city owns is one of the most versatile machines the company
has and they are not problematic. He told council that he had responded to all service calls from the city
within a matter of minutes and the bank rate quotes that Ms. Fox had received only had three rates and he
had added a forth rate to his quote for debit cards which he said could mean a significant savings.
Mr. Pearce seconded the motion. Ms Sessions asked what they were paying for the machine
Ms Fox was not present to answer. Ms. Doyle said she felt that they should not make a decision on this
without Ms. Fox being present.
Mr. Wolff withdrew the motion and Mr. Pearce withdrew the second.
***
Mr. Wolff motioned to approve the Hurricane Plan, Mr. Pearce seconded.
Mr. Anderson said that SEMA had taken Tybee’ s plan and removed the word Tybee from it and they
were using it as a model plan for all other municipalities.
Mayor and Council recognized Jimmy Brown and Everyone involved in putting that plan together.
The vote was unanimous.
Mayor Buelterman asked Mr. Brown if he could get the 1-800 number put in the letter for the people to be
able to call. Mr. Brown said there are three letters going out and he will try to add the 1-800 information
number to the one going out around the first of May.
Ms. Williams asked Mr. Brown to tell Council what he had learned concerning Generators at the Nursing
Home. Mr. Brown said the Nursing Homes fall under State guidelines and the only requirement is for
emergency back up service. It does not say it must be located on the premises. Ms. Williams asked Mr.
Hughes if Tybee could enact an ordinance that was stricter than the state ordinance specifying what kind
of backup equipment would be required for Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Homes to operate.
Buelterman said they could justify it with the frequent number of power outages that the city has.
Mr. Hughes said he would look into the preemption issues.
***
Council requested more written information be submitted before the next meeting so that they can make a
decision on the $35.00 application fee for events.
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***
Mr. Crone motioned to approve the water rate increase, Pearce seconded. Mr. Wolff asked that they
continue to look at tiered rates that will promote conservation. The vote was unanimous.
***
Mayor Buelterman asked Mr. Crone about the Aid to Construction fees. Mr. Crone said that he had asked
Mr. Hughes to look into applying the fees to extending the water lines as well as the sewer lines. Mr.
Hughes said he believes there is a way without duplicating the fees and having it conflict with the capitol
cost recovery. Mr. Crone said we need that change because the city is having a lot of water work done and
the fees currently apply to sewer only and we are looking at the work that is needed in Fort Screven.
***
Ms. Sessions motioned to send the garbage increase back to Ms. Fox for further review, Ms. Williams
seconded.
Mr. Wolff asked that Ms. Fox look into cutting back to one pick up between November and February to
keep that rate as low as possible.
Ms. Doyle asked about the contract with waste management and asked if we could put it out for bid. Mr.
Hughes said it is an annual contract with a short cancellation clause. He said it could be ended anytime.
The vote was unanimous.
Mayor Buelterman suggested that Ms. Doyle put the contract with Waste Management on the Agenda so
that they could discuss it at length.
***
Ms. Sessions motioned to approve the budget adjustment, Mr. Pearce seconded, the vote was unanimous.
***
Mr. Anderson told Council that there would be City Services involved with the Ft. Pulaski event. Council
agreed to give Mr. Anderson the Authority to make the decisions concerning this event. Mr. Crone said
for Mr. Anderson to call Council Members if anything came up that he was concerned about. Mr.
Anderson said he was confident that He and Mr. Nobles could work out the details.
Mr. Wolff motioned for the City to co-sponsor this event with the park service, Mr. Crone seconded, the
vote was unanimous.
***
Mayor Buelterman asked for any discussion regarding the Tour of Homes. Ms. Sessions asked what they
were requesting from the city. Mayor Buelterman said they wanted parking passes. Ms. Sessions asked
how many were requested. Mr. Anderson said the number was 50 passes. Ms. Sessions said the Tour of
Homes is generally not within range of city parking. Several Council members said they heard 1000 cars.
Mayor Buelterman said Ms. Brooks had contacted him and she had requested the same amount of parking
passes that they had received in the past and he didn’ t see a problem with that. Ms. Williams asked about
the banner. Mr. Anderson said they are requesting to be allowed to have a banner
advertising the tour. Mayor Buelterman said Mr. Anderson could handle that so no action was taken.
***
Council Minutes
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Council decided to discuss doing a survey to update the master plan at the upcoming retreat.
***
Mr. Crone motioned to approve an Alcohol License for Cousin Vinnie’ s, Mr. Wolff seconded, the vote
was unanimous.
***
Mayor Buelterman reported to Council that he had sent letters to Pete Lakakis and our rep. Pat Ferrell
concerning the County putting money aside for the beach renorishment like they did last year. He said he
is working with Eric Johnson to get the State Senate to bump up their budgeted amount to equal the
$2,930,000 that the House budgeted.
He met with Kelly Lewis at the Marine Science Center to ask her to get a budget amount together for
what they want to build so that we can lobby the state for the needed funds starting next year. He said that
the Retreat was tentatively set for April 29th. He said that they needed to start planning for SPLOST
money for 2009 to 2014 because he thinks the county is going to do that early this time and they need to
make sure they get it in.
He requested that the City waive the fee for Jason Ball and his regiment that have been in Iraq, to use the
Gym for a homecoming picnic in case of rain.
Mr. Pearce motioned to approve, Mr. Crone seconded, the vote was unanimous.
Mayor Buelterman said that there are other things in the works to roll out the red carpet for this regiment
and their families.
***
Mr. Hughes said in regards to the starting date for the new city manager, it will be early May but he
doesn’ t have an exact date yet.
Mayor Buelterman said she is trying to work out that 60-day notice with her employer.
Mr. Crone requested they plan the retreat to be held after her start date so she can be here.
Everyone agreed to plan the retreat for after the new city managers start date.
***
Mr. Crone had contacted Mr. Hughes to find out about paying Mr. Anderson for being the Interim City
Manager. Mr. Hughes recommended that it be done in the form of a merit raise that expires after April 31,
2006. The amount would be $2500, which is the difference between the city managers pay and Mr.
Andersons pay. Mayor Buelterman said that Mr. Anderson had not requested this.
Mr. Crone motioned to approve the Merit raise of $2500 to expire on April 31, 2006, Mr. Pearce
seconded, and the vote was unanimous.
Mayor and Council thanked Mr. Anderson for the good job he is doing.
Mr. Anderson thanked Council for the raise.
***
Mr. Pearce reported that he is active with the Environmental Committee and he met with Tom Barrow
and Jack Kingston. He said the National League of Cities (NLC) has already taken a stand on supporting
Beach Renourishment and it has been in their policy for quite some time.
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He said the focus of the National league of Cities is in developing an energy conservation position, which
will address Global Warming and Water Resources and funding for waters. He said that Kingston and
Barrow and their supporters are developing a bill dealing with energy conservation and fossil fuels. The
committee’ s overall focus is on the block grant cuts that affect most of the cities in the United States. He
said Mr. Kingston had brought up the issue of concern over the earmark and getting the approvals from
congress. He said he had heard a committee report from the editor of Science Magazine, concerning
Global Warming which is the concentration of CO 2 and the temperature rising. He said if the Ice in
Greenland melts it would raise the sea level by 20 feet. Mr. Pearce said that would take care of Tybee.
He said he heard the President of Liberia address Congress and he is very active on the NLC committee
and speaks to them regularly on issues and they always take what he has told them into consideration in
developing proposals
***
Ms. Williams said regarding the approval of the ordinance establishing the Ethics Committee last month,
Council members were supposed to appoint members to the committee tonight.
Mr. Hughes said in clarification that Council had agreed to have an ordinance and to appoint members
tonight but there had been no 1st and 2nd reading. He understood that tonight would be the first reading on
the ordinance and appointing members to be on the committee.
Ms. Williams motioned to approve the ordinance establishing the ethics advisory board, Mr. Wolff
seconded. Mr. Hughes had requested that they hold our section 4 that concerns the advisory board
rendering advisory recommendations and opinions until the ordinance that the committee presents as part
of what their job is to you. Mr. Hughes said you want them to have that power but that is the hardest part
of making one of these work.
Ms. Williams accepted Mr. Hughes recommendation to hold out section 4. Mr. Wolff seconded the
changed motion. The vote was unanimous.
Mayor Buelterman asked that Council make their recommendations for the committee at the first meeting
of next month and that Ms. Williams put that along with the second reading under her name on the
Agenda.
Ms. Williams said that the second meeting of the Beach Business Committee was held before tonight’ s
council meeting. She gave an update on meeting dates saying that they will be held at 5:30 PM at City
Hall before the second Council Meeting every month. She said one of the issues discussed was
concerning the stickers on the parking meters on Tybrisa and their recommendation to Council was that
the city conducts a survey of Tybrisa merchants to find out if they want to leave the stickers or remove
them or limit restricted hours to the daytime or just to the weekend. She said the goal is to provide
parking to the customers of the businesses as opposed to just visitors spending a day at the beach. She
said if they could get Council approval they will send out the surveys by Monday. Mr. Crone said that it
is the City Managers job to do that. Mayor Buelterman asked Mr. Anderson to hand out surveys and make
a recommendation to Council. Mr. Pearce asked what should be done regarding the stickers that are in
place now. Mayor Buelterman said Mr. Anderson has asked Ms. Conaway at Parking Services to be
lenient as far as the enforcement of the stickers is concerned. Mr. Anderson said he would give the
business owners a week to respond.
Ms. Doyle asked that the committee be told if something can be done by the City Manager as opposed to
Council Approval. She feels there is a lot of time that could be saved by them knowing the rules. Mayor
Buelterman said there is a fine line between what the City Manager can do and what the Council needs to
do. Mr. Crone told them it was spelled out in the ordinances under the job descriptions.
Ms. Sessions asked Mr. Hughes to explain the reason committees are told to bring their recommendations
to Council. She said maybe it is so that Council can approve them and then give them to the city manager
to act upon. Mr. Hughes told Ms. Sessions that would be correct on policy recommendations but the hard
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part is knowing where policy ends and becomes implementation. Mr. Hughes said his recommendation is
that the committee recommendations be brought to Council with the City Manager being copied so that
there can be communication to possibly work through trying to differentiate the policy from the
implementation. Ms. Sessions said if council was using the action items list they could differentiate right
on the list, who was taking care of that. Mr. Hughes said Council’ s policy in essence is to promote and
facilitate the business in that area while Mr. Anderson’ s is to implement that policy based on Council’ s
recommendations.
Ms. Williams said she wanted to discuss fines for dogs at large excluding dogs on the beach, which is a
whole separate issue. She had received a call concerning a dog that had broken its collar and was picked
up. She said the owner went to court thinking she would get off with a warning because it was the first
offence. Instead she had to pay the $200 fine and $90 in court cost however Mr. Hughes had explained
that court cost is determined by the state. Ms. Williams said she had talked with Judge Scheer and he said
the ordinance had been changed because of a rash of dog bites a year or so ago. He told her that there has
been a drop in the number of dog bites in response to the increased fine. Ms. Williams said in her opinion
she doesn’ t want the city to be punitive to responsible pet owners but Judge Scheer had said issuing a
warning would not work because of equal protection under the law. She said in talking with him they had
decided that giving him the discretion to suspend or dismiss part of the fine would work better or maybe
set a scale having different fine amounts for the number of violations. Mr. Crone said he believes the
Judges discretion would be the best way to handle it because he knows who is in there all the time. Mr.
Crone said he would not like for the Officer to have the authority to just give a warning. Ms. Sessions
asked Mr. Anderson to get a report from the last year concerning dogs at large so that we could get an
idea of the problem. Mayor Buelterman asked if his dog were loose on his property would he have to pay
a $290 fine. Mr. Hughes said his Dog would have to be off of his property for him to get a citation. Mr.
Hughes said the dog is not at large if it is on your property. Ms. Williams said she had asked the Animal
Control Officer for Tybee about a dog being under voice control and he said he would not give the owner
a ticket but she talked with Judge Scheer and he said that was a violation. Ms. Sessions said the difference
is under voice control in your yard and voice control in the street. Ms. Doyle said she had talked with Mr.
Anderson and he said the reason the judge has to charge that much of a fine is because the ordinance
reads a minimum of $200. Ms. Sessions said she remembered researching the minutes regarding this fine
and council had said the minimum fine for dogs on the beach was $200 but it was at the Judges discretion
as to whether or not it was at large. Ms. Williams looked at the minutes as well and highlighted the part
where it said community service could be performed.
Mayor Buelterman asked that the ordinance be reworded to reflect what Council wants and then they can
discuss and vote on it again. Mr. Crone said he had concerns regarding the voice control in your yard
because if he was riding a bicycle down the middle of the road and there was a dog that ran out of the
yard and bit him that would make it his problem because the voice did not stop the dog from biting him.
Mr. Crone said that nice dog that the Lady had e-mailed Kathryn about had bitten the arm of the ex
principle of St. Michaels School.
***
Mr. Hughes presented the Maritime Construction Ordinance for 2nd reading he said it imposes
requirements on those engaged in Dock building and Repair. He summarized the ordinance for Council.
Ms. Williams motioned to approve for 2nd reading the Maritime Construction ordinance, Mr. Pearce
seconded. Mr. Crone asked what jurisdiction Tybee had over the waterways. Mr. Hughes said they would
have to secure a building permit to work on a dock. He said there is a gap in the laws governing derelict
vessels in that there are no funds to enforce the laws. Mr. Crone asked if we could request a bond amount
to insure that if a barge sunk in the river, we could cash in the bond and have it removed. Mr. Hughes said
that is what this ordinance is for. Ms. Williams said hopefully everyone has seen the article about the
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tugboat, crane, boat and barge that sunk in Richardson Creek. She thinks that just underscores the need
for us to have some type of protection from accidents like that.
The vote was unanimous.
***
Mr. Hughes said he had drafted an ordinance a few months ago in regards to the request to let private
property owners charge for parking. He said this was done naming a few holidays but it would not be
exclusive to just those holidays. Regarding the weekends, it would be in the hands of Staff as established
by the Mayor and Council. Mayor Buelterman asked what the existing policy was. Mr. Hughes said the
existing policy say’ s no one outside of the commercial district can rent out parking spaces. Mr. Crone
said the days should be set ahead of time. Mr. Wolff asked if that could be a part of the license agreement.
Mr. Anderson said as part of the Business License they could list the days as allowed. Ms. Conaway said
if the city wants to allow it parking services does not go by dates as much as weather. She said she is all
for getting the cars off of the street when the island is covered up with traffic. She said it could be
arranged that they could call the parking service office to find out if parking lots are full. At that time she
would have no objection to them opening up private parking lots to take the overflow. Ms. Doyle asked if
they would need a business license for that. Mr. Anderson said they would still be required to have a
business license. Ms. Doyle said she believes the only way it could work would be the way Ms. Conaway
suggested. Ms. Conaway said they could keep a log of who had contacted them and gotten approval to
open their private lots. Mr. Wolff suggested that the people be given Ms. Conaway’ s number and
instructions regarding how to get approval to open, when they come to apply for a business license. Ms.
Sessions said she is concerned about the response of the neighbors of the private parking lots. We have a
lot of issues with rental houses without enough parking. Mr. Anderson said that is why they were initially
considering certain dates because that would eliminate every weekend. Mr. Hughes checked the rules in
Augusta regarding the Masters and he said they do not have rules governing private parking on lawns. He
said initially the thought was that they should limit the lots to certain dates and weekends. Mr. Hughes
asked if they would wait for both lots to be full before giving permission. Mr. Anderson said the Bridge’ s
property is on 10th and Butler. Ms. Conaway said there are times when both lots and all meters are full
and there are still hundreds of cars to be parked. Mr. Wolff asked if they could leave in the days and
maybe add other weekends at the discretion of parking services. Ms. Sessions asked how Mother’ s Day
had gotten bumped and Father’ s Day was left in. Mr. Crone asked Mr. Hughes how to word it. Mr.
Hughes said add July 3rd and Mother’ s Day and let Ms. Conaway and Mr. Anderson and Chief Price deal
with it. He said they would want to add whenever the parking services director or her designee allows.
Mr. Crone said if they are caught renting spaces without Ms. Conaway’ s permission their license should
be revoked forever. Mr. Hughes said a potential problem concerns the city’ s right of way and how most
of the owners down here use the right of way as their own. He said there is a potential for renting out the
city’ s right of way. Mayor Buelterman said Council would need to be clear on that because of
emergency vehicles. Mr. Anderson suggested that when they come to get their business license that they
are required to present a survey with a parking plan drawn within their property lines and not over the
right of ways. Mr. Crone said he doesn’ t think it will work and the police do not have time to enforce it.
He said if they have property with streets on both sides and you take 20 ft on both sides as the right of
way there would be no area to park. Mr. Wolff asked if the nuisance ordinance could be enforced
regarding the parking of cars in the right of ways. Mr. Hughes said it would not apply. He said parking is
an issue on the days listed anyway and this is not going to eliminate that. Mr. Hughes said they could
allow people to park in their lots right now and not charge them. This issue came up because people were
cited for charging to park on their property in a residential zone.
Ms. Doyle said she feels they should take a longer look at this and not rush a decision on it. She said she
doesn’ t feel comfortable voting on something like this that is not specific enough.
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Mayor Buelterman asked that Ms. Conaway and Mr. Anderson communicate with Mr. Hughes to come
up with an ordinance that is specific for Council to consider
***
Ms. Sessions motioned to approve that Memorial Park be included with the motion to allow Tybee
Beautification Association to build new wooden trash cans for JC Park. Ms. Williams seconded the
motion and the vote was unanimous.
Mr. Anderson asked Mr. Williams to have the trashcans in the pond at JC Park removed.
***
Council decided not to take action on Refreshment Stands on beach because of no additional information
being submitted. Ms. Sessions said Council could discuss it at a future retreat. Mayor Buelterman said
there were numerous issues with stands on the beach.
***
Mr. Wolff displayed a list of all contributors that helped out with the DCA Team. He thanked everyone
for everything they had contributed for the DCA team saying that he thought it was a great success and he
had many compliments from the team members.
***
Ms. Williams motioned to go into Executive Session to discuss, Litigation, Real Estate and Personnel.
Ms. Sessions seconded and the vote was unanimous.
_____________________________________
Jason Buelterman
Mayor
________________________________
Vivian O. Woods
Deputy Clerk